Jack signified that he understood; and they tip-toed about the room arousing their unconscious comrades, succeeding in doing so without causing one surprised exclamation. Nevertheless, they were surprised, but too dazed by the sudden awakening to understand anything.
“Don’t talk! Don’t move! unless we call,” ordered John, in a hoarse whisper.
And without further explanation, he and Jack slipped quietly out the front door. Each had a revolver in his hand. As they stepped out into the driveway their feet crunched alarmingly upon the gravel. John caught Jack’s arm and drew him beneath the lilac bushes at the corner of the house. Then they commenced a stealthy advance towards the rear, keeping as much as possible within the shadows. When they had circled about the rear wing, John dropped on his hands and knees and peered cautiously around the corner, commanding a view of the back door and part of the tea-room. In the darkness he could not see anything; for the moon had been obscured by a mass of heavy black clouds. He stepped back and consulted with Jack in a whisper, and together they waited to see whether the next flash of lightning would reveal anything to their straining eyes. It came soon, a sharp jagged fork of light which seemed to trickle across the sky, followed almost instantly by a peal of thunder; for the storm was almost upon them. For a moment everything was as bright as in daylight; then was immediately plunged into darkness. But the flash had lasted long enough for them to see that no one was about. As the thunder died away in the distance, the only sound they could hear was the soft patter of the coming rain upon the leaves of the trees.
“Let’s go out in the open,” said Jack. “Let’s take a hasty look around and then beat it in again. We’ll soon be soaked if we don’t.”
They darted quickly here and there, examining dark corners of the lawn, looking into bushes, and behind tree trunks. The rain was coming faster, the lightning flashed incessantly, and the continuous roll of the thunder made talk impossible.
“Here she comes!” cried John, as the rain descended in torrents. “Let the stable go. Run for the back door!”
In another moment they were under cover.
“We’ll have to knock!” shouted Jack, raising his voice above the storm.
“Yes. But wait a minute; there’s one place we didn’t look.”
John fumbled for his flash and turned it on, pointing it out into the rain. Jack could not see a yard through the downpour, but he was suddenly aware that John was referring to the sloping door which covered the steps leading from the cellar out into the yard at the rear of the tea-room.